What is a good TV Tuner?

[Adam]

I'm in the process of building my superpc, and I wanted to have a TV tuner in it with PVR capabilities, here are my tentative specs, any recommendations on my system or tuner?

Motherboard ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ AM2 with Fan
Ram Crucial 4GB
Video Card eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB DDR3
Hard Drive 750 GB Seagate Barracude 7200.10
DVD RW SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
OS XP Pro SP2
TV Tuner ATI Wonder 650 PCIe
CPU Cooler Zalman CNPS9500 AM2
Monitor Dell 22"

[Jamie Nixx]

Hi, just to let you know before you get a roasting, i am known as the Simon Cowell of the computer world ;) :D

Not going to be horrible, just constructively criticise.

The AMD 6400 is a very good CPU but the AMD boards chipsets are not so good, you would be better off getting an E6750 which is basically the same as the 6400 but you then have the advantage of being able to buy a really good board.

The P35 chipset is the one to go for, they offer DDR2 and DDR3 support as well as being one of the best for gaming.

Second, the 8800GT runs rings around the GTS and its cheaper so go for one of those.

The Zalman 9500 is a very buggy cooler, at least 5 people alone on this forum have had problems with them, also, if you are not overclocking the stock coolers for CPU's are fine.

On newegg they are currently doing Corsair XMS2 with a fat rebate and its just as good as Crucial if not better, and you should only go for 4GB of Ram if you are using a 64bit OS, 32bit OS will not recognise more than 3GB and your computer will be slower than with 2GB.


Sorry don't think you expected to be told to remodel vertually your whole computer lol, but you will thank me for it later if you decide to go with the changes.

Also, you don't have a PSU listed, if you don't have one in mind go for a Corsair HX520 or a Hiper type R.

[Adam]

Ok Jamie, check this out:

Motherboard ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz
Ram Corsair 3GB
Video Card eVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
Hard Drive 750 GB Seagate Barracude 7200.10
DVD RW SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
OS XP Pro SP2
TV Tuner ATI Wonder 650 PCIe
Monitor Dell 22"
PSU CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W

[Jamie Nixx]

Spot on mate.